petition, which would bring the bill that has been sent from the senate and pass the senate overwhelmingly sent to the house, take that bill up and give, extend the tax breaks to the middle class and give certainty to the middle class as we move to, continue to move into the holiday season. all of the tax rates expire december 31st and we can deal with the tax breaks for the wealthiest most fortunate americans and others to avoid the fiscal cliff between now and december 31st but take what we agree on which is that the middle class tax cuts should be extended and tax rates should not go up for the middle class, let's do that now. the republicans refuse to do that thus far, which is sort of baffling. even some of their senior members like tom cole from oklahoma have said let's take that deal, but let's pass the tax cuts for the middle class and we're talking about making sure that tax rates for 98% of all americans and 97% of all businesses. it's a small percentage of individuals that make more than $250,000 a year that tax rates would go up just a little bit. we had an election, thomas, wh